False Ballots Further Confuse Complicated Overseer Election

More than 100 false ballots have been received by he University in this year's elections for the Board of Overseers.

The ballots--complete with a facsimile of the signature of Sargent Kennedy '28, Secretary to the Corporation and the Board of Overseers--have been mailed to Kennedy's office during the past few weeks. They are identical to official ballots except that they are slightly smaller, have no notched corners, and include printed lines for name and address.

A large number on the ballots were mailed to members of the Class of 1941 in May by Francis C. Powers '41. On an enclosed card, he advised his classmates to use them "in the event that you have misplaced your original ballot." The cards addressed to Kennedy, read: "Herein is my official vote. If for any reason my vote will not be counted, please send me immediately an Official Ballot."

Powers, reached by phone at his Long Island home last night, declined to comment. "Speak to Langdon Marvin," he said. But he insisted that he had not worked together with Marvin ('41), who earlier this year made himself a candidate for the Board of Overseers through a petition drive. Marvin said yesterday that he knew nothing about the false ballots until he received one.

Kennedy said that the matter will be discussed by the Board of Overseers Thursday morning. The results of the election, in which 89,000 alumni were eligible to vote, are to be announced that afternoon.

The false ballots are only another twist in the most tangled Overseers election in the history of the University.

The man responsible for most of the embroilment is Marvin. Last month, for example, he sent alumni several hundred postcards with which they could request duplicate ballots. They were addressed to "Secretary. Harvard Board of Overseers, % 9 Francis Ave." 9 Francis Ave. is the address of Marvin H. Slobdokin '41, one of Marvin's supporters. After making a list of the 145 requests that were returned, Marvin's supporters dropped them off at Kennedy's office.

And he has brought in from New York the Honest Ballot Association, a nonprofit group that spends most of its time supervising union elections. They should be allowed, he argues, to stand by while Kennedy's staff counts the ballots and to check that the requests for duplicate ballots have been answered.

Marvin's position is that a number of alumni are being deprived of their votes because they lost their ballots, never noticed them, or never replaced them. And, he said in an interview yesterday, too few alumni--only 27 per cent last year--vote in the first place.

One reason, he claims, is that the election process is secretive and full of outmoded traditions. "After all, this is not an election to a skull and bones society," he said.

Specifically, Marvin wants the Overseers to:

* Let an agency such as the Honest Ballot Association review this year's election. "I'm not saying that it wasn't honest," he explained, "I just want to make sure that everyone who should have had a vote had one."

All of the false ballots should have been honored, he argues, since they were used by people who misplaced the real ones. And he claims that only 30 of the 145 people who requested duplicate ballots with his postcards received them. (According to Kennedy, the others all received letters asking them to specify their reasons for wanting another ballot and had ample time to reply.)

* Abandon the rule that Harvard and Radcliffe graduates have to wait five years before they can vote in the election.

* Make a bigger effort to find alumni whose addresses have been lost. And make it possible for alumni who live abroad to return their ballots without paying the postage themselves.

Several of Marvin's demands were backed last night by George J. Abrams, executive director of the Honest Ballot Association. "My feeling is that the procedures are unorthodox," he said.

All of the requests for late ballots should have been honored no matter where they came from, he argued, and observers should have been admitted to the counting.

Abrams charged that ballots were tal- lied as they arrived at Kennedy's office. The Overseers should have waited until last Friday, the deadline for the ballots, he said. "If there ever was a desire to change the results," he explained, "simultaneous counting would have made it more tempting."

"Harvard is in the same position as the unions," he said. "And, like the unions, you may find someone trying to get legislation or taking you to court to get your election process changed."

In fact, Marvin said yesterday that one of his friends wants to take the ballot issue to court. "That's not my way," he added.

Beginning last February, Marvin showed what his way was. He broke all traditions by beginning a campaign to win election to the overseers.

When be started out, 12 nominess had already been picked quietly by a committee of the Associated Harvard Alumni.

Nomination by the alumni committee is the traditional route to the Board of Overseers. But anyone can become a candidate for the Board--which has the final say on all academic matters at the University--by getting 200 alumni signatures on a petition. There have been four such drives in this century.

Marvin sent out hundreds of nominating postcards to alumni--and 436 were signed and returned. But many, according to Kennedy, had to be disqualified because their signers did not hold degrees